Friday, September 21, 2018

Amazon Could build 3,000 Cashierless C-stores by 2021 What does that mean for you?

Legacy book stores scoffed
at the idea that Amazon could ever change the face of book retail; well they
did. Yes, legacy grocery stores why are
you saying what book stores did then?The grocery industry holds conference after conference some with new
titles like ‘Grocerant
Summit’ yet each conference has the same speakers or speakers from the same
companies that they have had for forty years. How has that advice worked?Well let’s just see.

Regular readers of
this blog know that today there are 50%
fewer legacy grocery stores than there were just 12 years ago.However, if you were to pick up a grocery trade magazine you would think it
was twelve years ago.Even worse if you
walk into most legacy grocery banners today they look more like yesterday than
today or tomorrows food retail platform. How can that be?Simple, no Outside-Eyes.

Get this Bloomberg
News reported Wednesday that Amazon is considering a plan to open as many as
3,000 of the cashierless Go convenience stores by 2021. Just think about that;
3,000 stores selling grocerant niche fresh food for less than a restaurant can,
less than a grocery store, and better food faster than a C-store can according
to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®
at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers are dynamic
not static and many grocery retailers are not even static as they look more
like yesterday.Many legacy grocery
stores have sat back and continued doing what they always have done, promoted
new leaders from within, and reinforced running the business in the same way
that they were trained 20, 30, and 40 years ago in some cases.

Guess what?Amazon did not do that.They have had outside eyes focused on fresh
food sales and a qualitative noticeable increase is speed of service for inside
results. The Bloomberg report stated
that Amazon is considering different models as it looks to expand Amazon Go,
including weighing whether to include a limited selection of groceries, or
simply focus on prepared food pickup. Amazon’s smaller footprint makes shopping
faster and consumers continue to be time starved according to Johnson.

Very few consumers want
to spend 40 minutes walking around a Hy-Vee or Fred Meyer store looking for
eight items once a week.Today there are
29 restaurants for each legacy grocery store in the United States. The consumer
has moved and its time that the grocery industry addresses just how they are
going to evolve and if they in fact want to be in food retail 12 years from
now.

Today Amazon Go’s largest
store is 2,100 square feet -- carry a mix of prepared and packaged food, soft
drinks and make-at-home meal kits. If we know anything it’s that format will
continue to evolve as they try to sell more fresh food fast.So, how long are you going to sit back and
watch food retail evolve and the consumers migrated to other formants?